At 04:46 PM 3/8/2001 -1000, Richard Uchytil wrote:>I need to increase my range.>I know all about playing pedal tones and all that stuff, but don't
you>need to actually practice playing stuff high?

Well, as I've said before, you are what you practice. If all you
do is practice pedal tones, well, you'll be good at playing pedal tones.
Some of the best advice I've seen for range extension came from an article
written by Maynard Ferguson for DownBeat magazine a few years ago. Maynard
said that as a young trumpeter he would learn a song off the radio and
practice it until he could play the melody just like Harry James, Bunny
Berigan, etc. Once he could play the song musically, he would transpose
it up to a higher key and practice until he could play musically in that
tessitura. Once that was accomplished, he'd move the melody higher again.
He would continue to move the melody higher and higher until he was playing
melodies up around double C and above. Maynard said that trumpeters should
develop their range in the same manner as an opera singer. As he said "there
isn't much call for screech singers. Don't be a screech trumpeter".

In the article, Maynard told a story of Miles Davis coming up to him
and asking why he couldn't hit the notes that Maynard played. Maynard told
him it had to do with his legs. Maynard, and most lead players, plant themselves
on the floor like a weight lifter. Such a stance aids tremendously
in supporting your breathing. Their are lots of different ideas on how
one should breath. One thing is for certain: accelerating
AIR is key to ascending into the upper register. Personally, I use
a mental visualization exercise I learned from Charley Davis and Bill Adam.
I imagine that I'm inhaling through my navel and blow from my belly. This
simple visualization exercise keeps the chest, neck and throat relaxed
while breathing abdominally.

Maggio, Caruso, Claude Gordon, Arturo Sandoval and many others have
written books with range expansion exercises, usually consisting of gradually
expanding arpeggios or scales. Regardless of how you expand your range
into a higher tessitura, do it with a big, full, resonant sound and play
as musically as possible.

Pedal tone exercises are good for a few things that apply to the high
register:

1.You have to accelerate your air to make pedal tones speak

2. If pedal tones are played properly, the corners of the lips pull
down, forming an embouchure similar to that used in the high register,
only without the stress and strain of producing the high pitch

3. Pedal tones provide a form of "lip massage" that can be a good warm
down after exhausting playing.

DON"T DO A LOT OF PEDAL TONE PLAYING!!!!

I've known trumpet players that went overboard playing pedal tones only
to seriously mess up their embouchures or even cause muscle or nerve damage
that ended their trumpet playing days. Pedal tones can be quite beneficial
if done correctly and sparingly. They can seriously mess you up if done
incorrectly.